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Why women shouldn't be priests: A non-theological view
By Our Commentator
Gender discourse: The catholic priesthood is one of the few remaining citadels of patriarchy that stands unmoved and un-fettered by the feminist movement that has swept across world social systems in recent years.
I think women should not be catholic priests- not for those theological reasons that the Church gives (namely that none of the 12 apostles were women, tradition of the church, etc). Rather from a purely lay perspective, I find the argument for women to become catholic priests (and in the wider scheme, for women to become everything that men are) non-responsive to the actual plight of women inequality.
Thinking that gender equality is achieved when women are allowed into patriarchal institutions; that women are equal (to men) when they are given a seat on the men’s table; that women feel equal when they start doing things that have hitherto been men-things, in my view, under-serves the cause for women equality.
Women's equality should not just be women chasing for a place in all things hitherto known as men’s. It should be about women being given the space and resources to excel in whatever they do, including those society has put on their laps- as “women’s things”. Don’t get me wrong, this is not the same as saying women should not be engineers, mathematicians, mechanics, etc. Priesthood is not one of them. Being a priest is not like choosing to be an engineer. (One is a profession; the other is a vocation).
I think that the real problem in the Catholic church, like any patriarchal institutions of our society is that women have been disadvantaged, under-resourced and I believe undermined by institutions conceived and constructed by men and are therefore never cognizant of the need to be sensitive to women, and lack appreciation of the value and benefits that women bring on the table, as women (their femininity, their biology, their physiology, etc) and not them trying to be men (for which they don’t have the biology, physiology, psychology, etc).
In the Catholic Church for example, there are institutions for women, the nuns. The nuns are the mothers of the church (like the Blessed Virgin Mary), who take care of (mother) the human part of the person (and this is no less important). The nuns as a matter of fact are involved in more mundane aspects of a person than priests. Nuns in the church are normally on the human development side of things. They run the hospitals to provide healthcare, they run the schools, they run development programmes, etc. The priest on the other hand, takes care of the spiritual aspects of the human being. So for me, the question is why does the priest who runs the (intangible) spiritual aspects of the human being take more worldly resources than the nun who runs the mundane things that need more money?
In the Catholic Church, all the contributions from Christians, donations and grants to the church either go to the bishop or the parish priest. The two men run the economics and finances of the church at diocesan and parish levels, respectively. The nuns who work with medicines, scholastic materials and such things in the parish never get to handle any cash generated by the local Christian/church community. (I am not in any way saying priests don’t need money to do the spiritual things. Certainly, they need fuel to go preach, and so on).
And that is where the problem is. The problem of the church is that resources are directed to the men and their work, and not to the women, and their work. And because the church’s women have no resources, they don’t have influence and decision-making powers in church affairs.
The problem with the feminist’s argument is that they typically see the male priestly institution as the end in itself. That once you become a priest (Like the men), then automatically women have arrived, are liberated. It takes to dismantle the very core of the male patriarchy to have women access resources, have power in decision making and influence in the church.
And it doesn’t need women to become priest to do that. As a matter of fact, women could become priest but still continue to be marginalized within the church. The issue here, that feminists should be concerning themselves with, is how the church’s women get equal opportunity, equal resources, and equal space in the management of the church affairs, as women.
The argument of the feminists is that the way to do that is to get women into the real mix, is to get them into the priestly structures of the church. Essentially, it is the same argument that to address issues of women, you need women Members of Parliament, that to address marginalization of blacks in a predominately white country, you need a black president….so far there is no evidence it works! Just having female talking heads in the male dominated, patriarchal institutions in not women equality. Women equality is enabling women to build whatever is in their power to the best it can be. There are areas women are better than men. Women managed institutions tend to be better managed than men. Let’s see all women led institutions top the charts; let’s have Nsambya Hospital run by nuns be a centre of excellence; in quality of service, as compared to Mulago Hospital, run by a government man! That way the women make the so-called women things so attractive that men would like to be in them. When do we get women’s things so well done those men “die” to be part of them?
The catholic priesthood was constructed by men, for men, and has been marketed so much, and so well that it has become an enviable thing; it has the aura, the solemnity, the power, the resources… When do we get sisterhood packaged and promoted so well that men envy to become nuns (like the male midwives)? Right now, men don’t want to be nuns, because it less attractive; not because it’s a women’s thing; it’s because it’s under resourced; it’s not powerful, lacks influence and lacks that much aura.
Therefore, by dying to become priests, women simply play into the patriarchal architecture of society, and settle down for the niceties provided by the patriarchal system, that ultimately doesn’t deal with the very fabric of women inequality.
The author is a communications specialist and a Catholic. If you have any views or want to respond to this article, send your comment to: [email protected]